Derek Alan Siddoway

A thrilling coming of age tale. Well laid out character development and a nice climax. Didn't see the end twist coming, but looking back it was foreshadowed well. Good intro into the world.

The puzzle part reminded me of a Stargate episode where Daniel had to do the same thing so that was funny.

Minor grammatical / editorial errors scattered throughout but nothing too crazy.

Other thoughts:
- The love interest was not flushed out at all. They spoke maybe 5 times and all of a sudden he can't live without her? I get that they are 18 but a little interpersonal relationship build there would have went a long way. However NOT EVERY BOOK NEEDS A LOVE INTEREST. This book would have been just as good if the boy was a platonic friend. It hurt more than help that it was weakly delivered.

- She was like 5 years behind, but made it up in a couple of months. That was just a little out of sorts to me, I think making her Windsworn at the end was a bit too much. But maybe it was needed for the next book plot line.

- The normal, simple names in this book were perfection. Fantasy authors that slap the keyboard are weak writers. Just give me a normal easy name that fits within the world. No extra vowels, extra names just for the sake of being extra. Just make it sound out properly and readable. … (more)

A good book - not a great one. Eva was still annoying. They desert the Windsworn - albeit with the King's encouragement - and all nearly die as a result of Eva's poor planning and decision making. And we hear a lot about her recriminations. However - they do eventually find her father as they are running from screes of smelterborn. And they were able to shed some light on the smelterborn because of the Dark Wonder her father stole. It seemed a bit of a rip off that she only knew him for a handful of days before he died to give them a chance to escape - but then again - I didn't particularly like him either so it was probably not bad for the story. I still want to finish the series so that's something.… (more)